DES celebrates the publication of a new book

Date Released: Thu, 1 November 2018 15:47 +0200

Charlie Shackleton explains that this book is one that he has wanted to do for some time, and that Deepa Pullanikkatil was the perfect colleague to bring it to fruition. The heart of the book is a series of 21 case stories or narritives of how ordinary people moved out of poverty through earning a meaningful cash income from processing and selling non-timber forerst products. Most experienced extreme hardships and deep poverty before finding a way, through sheer determination, hard work and innovation, to make a better life for themselves and their families. There are moving descriptions of what it means to move out of poverty, not just in financial and materialistic terms, but also for finding a voice and confidence, being able to educate one’s chlidren and earning respect within the local community. In the same vein Deepa and Charlie encouraged each of them to be the lead or co-authors of their own case chapters in the book. The book provides faces and lived experiences to the many quantitaive academic studies on the value and contribution of non-timber-forest products